“India Cherishes Protests, But Curses Their effects” was an article by Jim Yardley in the New York Times International on Wednesday, September 15, 2010).
[A picture of a gas station was printed alongside the article in which the employees were shown resting without work in Calcutta in the first week during a strike called by trade unions to protest inflation and privatization].
The sadistic and lampooning caption was as follows;
“What Gandhi used to free a nation is sometimes just a pain”
Today many Indians see these bandhs as symbols of dysfunction rather than of political vitality. Unlike other forms of protest, the bandh can inflict huge economic losses, often to the common working person in whose name such strikes are called. No corner of the country is spared. Even the educated professors in a college or university or the government doctors on duty resort to strikes as and when necessary. No political party including a ruling party in the country avoids this sort of protest to convey annoyance or seek public sympathy over an issue. India’s Supreme court has issued rulings against bandhs and, in certain cases fined political parties for conducting them. Trade union leaders justify such protests as their legitimate way of expression. Common workers and business men suffer a lot due to such bandhs. One Janardan Mandan, the owner of a garment factory in Calcutta was found doing exercise in a city park during the bandh complaining that it was the 10th day of closure during the year on account of such bandhs forced by the parties.
What is the remedy? Even the highest court of law in India hasn't been able to tame the situation for the better so far!
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